Eoin Morgan: England need to play like Australia

Play on the front foot: Morgan calls on side to learn from Aussies Getty

EXCLUSIVE

Eoin Morgan today warned his England team-mates they have little chance of lifting the World Cup unless they learn to play the Australian way.

After putting their Test cricket back on track with a series win over India, England have six months to get their 50-over cricket in order.

The World Cup, which takes place in Australia and New Zealand, starts in February and, as things stand, England are outsiders. Alastair Cook remains captain of the one-day side but Morgan is one of his key lieutenants. In the absence of Stuart Broad, who will have knee surgery next month, Morgan will be vice-captain for the five one-dayers against India, starting in Bristol on Monday.

Never afraid of speaking his mind, Morgan had a message for his colleagues: change or fail. In recent years, England’s batting plan in one-day cricket has been to play cautiously for the majority of the innings before accelerating at the end.

Morgan suspects that tactic will not be good enough next year, especially for the matches in Australia. Three of England’s six first-round games take place there, including the opener against the hosts in Melbourne on

February 14. The final will also be staged at the MCG on March 29.

“The attributes and strengths of the team have to change,” Morgan told Standard Sport. “The wickets are really good in Australia and we need to have seam bowlers producing short-of-a-length deliveries. We need to have that awareness of when to perform a bit more aggressively and when maybe we don’t. In England, we’re used to posting a score of 280 or 300 and that being a par or maybe even a winning score.

“In Australia, I don’t think that will be competitive. The majority of the time the total will need to be 300-plus for the team batting first. It’s a difficult balance to strike. On the one hand, you want to find a formula that works in this country and that will allow us to win matches and build confidence going into the World Cup. On the other, we have to work away at those attributes we’ll need to win a tournament in Australia and New Zealand.”

If England are to prosper, they need Morgan to find top form. Along with wicketkeeper Jos Buttler, the Middlesex player is the most explosive batsman in the team. Morgan’s sparkling range of strokes makes him one of the prize wickets in the side. The 27-year-old has played 119 ODIs, averaging just below 40 with six centuries and 21 fifties. And in a form of the game becoming more about finding the boundary, Morgan’s strike rate of 87 runs per 100 balls is highly competitive.

India are the world champions but ended the Test series dreadfully, thrashed in the final three games. Despite that, Morgan believes they will expose any weakness in England’s cricket.

“We had a competitive series early in the summer against Sri Lanka [England lost 3-2] but we didn’t play as well as we can,” he said. “India will be a great measure of where we are. They are world champions and we have a long way to go before the World Cup. But I’d rather know that now, when we still have six months to go, than be thinking it when we’re about to start the tournament.”

When this series is over, England travel to Sri Lanka for seven 50-over games in November and December. A tri-series in Australia, which also features India, completes their preparations. Had England lost the Test series, there is every chance Morgan would have been captain for the tournament. With England 1-0 down after two matches, Cook was struggling and it is thought Morgan was prominent on the England and Wales Cricket Board’s list of possible replacements if Cook quit. He was “flattered” at being mentioned and although he sees nothing on the horizon, he feels at ease leading others.

“It was a source of pride,” he added. “But I don’t see roles changing any time soon. I’ll look to keep contributing as much as I can in the changing room and on the field. It helps that I have a lot of experience in one-day and Twenty20 cricket. If we can help the new talent, we’ll reap the rewards down the line.”

Eoin Morgan was speaking at an ECB Club Open day supported by Waitrose — an initiative aiming to get more people playing and supporting cricket in their local communities. For further information, go to www.ecb.co.uk/clubopendays